Page 69 - FoodFocusThailand No.207 JUNE 2023

STRONG QC & QA

1. Does your process have a kill-step (cooking)?... sanitary conditions of the facility. The cost of environmental
(Yes/No) contamination can be high, so you must ask yourself what
2. Is your product exposed to the environment after risk you are willing to take. To save yourself a lot of trouble,
the kill step and before packaging?... (Yes/No) ensure you have an effective and robust Environmental
3. Is your product a collection of ready-to-eat products Monitoring Program in place. It’s important to recognize that a
combined to produce a ready-to-eat food that doesn’t clean test result doesn’t confirm that your food is safe, rather it
include a kill-step?... (Yes/No) verifies that your cleaning processes are effective.
4. If your product is refrigerated, is it one that is
conducive to the growth of listeria monocytogenes?
(deli meat, raw cheese/milk, seafood, sprouts)… (Yes/ More Information Service Info C008
No)
Because ready-to-eat foods are typically not
processed by the consumer before consumption,
it’s important to know that there’s no chance they เอกสารอ้างอิง / References
might be contaminated by pathogens in an unclean FDA reader, Environmental Monitoring in Food Processing
facility. While testing the product itself can inform you https://www.fdareader.com/blog/environmental-monitoring-program
about the safety of that sample, testing the facility Food Safety Resource, The Essential Guide to Environmental
Monitoring
https://safefoodalliance.com/food-safety-resources/the-essential-
guide-to-environmental-monitoring
Environmental Monitoring Program: An Early Warning System for
Microbiological Hazards
https://www.qualityassurancemag.com/article/aib1213-environmental-
monitoring-program/
Puritan Medical Products, Why Environmental Monitoring is Important
in Food Processing
https://blog.puritanmedproducts.com/why-environmental-monitoring-
is-important-in-food-processing

verifies that your cleaning activities are working and that
each batch is being produced in a pathogen-free
environment. The most common pathogens should be
tested in your environmental monitoring program which
can be found living in the nooks and crannies of a facility
are Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, and E. coli.
You may test for these directly or indicator microorganisms
that represent each pathogen.
Additionally, you may conduct environmental
monitoring for specific allergens to confirm that
there is no allergen residue in your space. This would
only be a consideration if you were processing both
allergen containing and non-allergen containing
products on the same equipment. An EMP should be
carefully designed after evaluating the facility and its
products. Different food plants (e.g., plant vs. animal
products, dry vs. wet processing facility) with various
food products may require different EMPs. An EMP is
specific to a facility and to the individual operations
within a facility. A tailored environmental monitoring
program with a baseline/target will be more specific
as well as more effective in assessing the overall

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